It’s a special day next weekend for enthusiasts who follow Aspatria’s parkrun.
Saturday, September 10 will mark the 50th since the sessions were started at Bower Park last year and since then have started to carve a niche in the parkrun circuit with followers from various parts of the country.
Mike Graham, 75, is one of the volunteers who have done their bit in helping to organise the Saturday morning event.
He says: “We thought we’d like to do something to mark our 50th run so we are going all out to get 50-plus people to take part.
“Geoff Toogood organises the event and a number of us act as vounteers to help out on the day. It’s proved to be a popular attraction and it’s surprising where people come from to take part.
“On one occasion a chap from Dunfermline got the train to Edinburgh and then to Carlisle where he stayed overnight. Then it was down to Aspatria for the run and back home.
“We have also had a chap from Liverpool who came and after 20 minutes was on his way back home again.
“It seems they have a similar approach as the football groundhoppers who tick off different grounds across the country. parkruns have become very popular and there are over 1,000 now across the country so people are trying to tick them all off. It’s a nice hobby – keep fit and see different parts of the country.”
Hopefully word will spread of Aspatria’s 50th event and there will be a very sizeable turn-out.
At Bower Park the 5k course takes parkrunners round the first team pitch grandstand, behind the sticks and then round the second team pitch, back to the club house and then round to the grandstand again. That is completed five times.
For those of a competitive nature times are recorded and course best for the different categories are logged.
